My Adventures Where in the world is ….

In Ukraine where everyone loves a reason to party every city has a special day.  I don’t know if these days are related to a specific event or just a day that was chosen.  I cannot find anything that says the day itself is special so probably just a day they picked to celebrate.  For your information Dnepropetrovsk was first established as Ekaterinoslav in 1776.  It was named Dnepropetrovsk in 1926, Dnipropetrovsk in 1992 when Ukraine declared independence from Russia and in May of 2016 was renamed Dnipro.

So Saturday morning we got up a little later than usual but as usual we started our day with our weekly shopping.  When we were coming home there were lots of people out and about and we noticed that our road (Poliya) was once again blocked off from the main road and there were police cars to make sure no one passed the blockades.

Later I was cleaning and cooking and I heard a lot of commotion outside.  At the window I saw that the street was filled with people and it seemed to be a parade of some sort.  We watched for a while and then I decided I had to go down and take some pictures.  So I left Elder Morgenegg in charge of the plum tart in the oven and went down.   The streets and sidewalks were packed with people for as far as you could see both directions and the costumes were amazing.  People were happy – waving and smiling and singing and dancing.  The music was loud and crazy and it was very festive.  Here are some of the pictures I took.

Bringing up the end of the parade was this cute yellow mini van.  Semki is a Sunflower brand here.  Elder Morgenegg had some and he says they are small but taste pretty good.  In the states the seeds are much bigger.

So that was the parade.  The road was blocked off until late that night and there were lots of activities.  One thing we worried about is the huge stage right across the street from us.

Turns out this was not as loud as the other end of the road where the loud raucous music comes from, in fact some of the music from here was very nice.  You could see groups lined up outside the stage to come on.  The karate group was lined up at one time.  Later I think there was ballet as we heard swan lake and parts of the nutcracker and other classical music – that was a nice change.

One last picture – these two girls were dressed head to toe in traditional vyshyvanka and they were so cute.

Even late that night there were lots of people on the street and on the sidewalks going both directions.  Families with young children, strollers and children on shoulders as well as teens and older people.  It was a huge celebration and the next day it was sooooo quiet – almost eerie quiet going to Church.  However, by the time we were coming home the city was awake again.

Next year we may have to plan to be out and about.  I heard there was an artist festival and a food festival and a flower festival.  The missionaries said it was crowded all over the city but we should try it once I think.

Hope you enjoyed a taste of Dnipro City Day.

Saturday night We cr decided to talk a little walk (almost a two hour walk) and go somewhere we had not yet been but not far away.  We walked north on the road by our apartment and the river – mostly on the side across the street from the boardwalk (or so they call it).  It was interesting and since it was a cool evening a good evening for a walk.  It was getting dark when we got home.  Here is some of what we saw.  Not as interesting as some walks but still…..

So that was our short walk on a Saturday evening.  It is the first we have taken in a while.  It has just been too hot.  For the first 22 days of August it was over 90 degrees outside and for 14 of those days it was over 95 – it was just too hot to go anywhere so we had people over and just stayed home.  We do our shopping first thing Saturday mornings before the heat is unbearable and before the stores are crowded.  The store we shop at is open 24/7 and we like to go and get home by 9 or so.  That makes it much easier.  Then we have hibernated in our air conditioning.  These last few days have been so nice to be able to have our windows open and fans maybe going.  So much more comfortable – even if I am cooking.

By the way, I actually bought a muffin pan to make muffins in.  The first ones I made were banana with too ripe bananas.  Wonderful.

Saturday, August 5th.

This morning we went shopping like we usually do. We were out early as it was supposed to be in the high 90s. When we were going to the store it was not too bad but coming home I could really feel the humidity climbing.

Elder Morgenegg took an exercise walk and was gone a while and so I while he was gone I wanted to get our budget and finances caught up so that took some time but all is well and all balances so that is always a good thing. I guess I take it a little too far as I balance the checkbook and then I created a spreadsheet to track our cash as well as our other expenses while we are here. I think we spend more cash here than we did at home.

Then we did laundry and our usual Saturday cleaning.

Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention.

I wanted to make muffins. We had these delicious blueberries and I was so hungry for Andrea’s blueberry muffins but no muffin time available. One day I found muffin papers at the grocery and I bought them. Yesterday I was thinking, why not create something that would hold the muffin papers to create my own muffins. I took a Ukrainian version of a 9×13 pan and used used foil to divide it into three sections lengthwise. Then I put in the papers and they sort of fit. Then I made the muffin batter and topping. I carefully put the muffin batter in the muffin papers and added the topping. They are not exactly round but they cooked all the way through (in a longer time – between the oven and the situation it took longer). We will eat them latter. I am excited to try them.

Do not send me a muffin pan.  I don’t know where they have them here but if they have muffin papers there must be muffin pans somewhere as well.  We will see if I ever see one.

I also made cookies. I had remembered cookies I have made from time to time – kind of like a sugar cookie but not so sweet. You cut out circles and on one circle you put a raison filling and then another circle on top. Crimp it and delicious filled cookies. I had not uploaded or saved my recipe so went looking for something similar. The filling only went for 13 of the 20 cookies so I used blueberry jam in the rest. The look delicious. I hope they are. They are bigger than I would choose so next time I will have to find a smaller cutter. I just used a round container from something we had bought.

After I cleaned up I suggested we take a walk.  It was seven thirty and I thought maybe a little cooler.  It probably was but it was still hot.  I suggested we walk up to the park that is not far from our apartment where the missionaries had their bubble activity.  Elder Morgenegg had been there earlier in the day and I had wanted to see what was called the “Palace of Students.”  The reviews on line were mixed.  Some said it was a must see, a few said it was a typical Soviet structure – beautiful in its day and now run down and falling apart.  It was both.  I was surprised how huge it is though the pictures on line do not do it justice in that way.

In reading about the university later I learned it is a preforming arts university that has lots of activities.   The pictures on line are varied and interesting.  I don’t know if we would ever go there or even if we could.

As we walked home the sun was almost down and there was lots of activity as always across the road at on the river walkway.

We came home and turned the air conditioning back on to cool off.  Thank goodness for air conditioning.  I feel bad for those who don’t have any at all.  It is just plain hot here and the humidity (although not as bad as New York) makes it hard to handle.

All is well and we still have lots to see and do.

 

Usually we stay at home on Sunday evenings but this last Sunday the Elders asked if we wanted to come and see what they did on Sunday evenings in the park not far from where we live.  What we learned is that there is a whole new world out there we had not seen and another way to get up the hill – kind of round about but still another route.  So we looked at a map and got some sketchy directions from the Elders (near the concert stand up the hill) and we headed off to see what we could see.  As we walked we heard the usual music – well not usual but still music and we looked over to the river walkway and the music stand was set up closer to our apartment.  At that moment there was a man playing the saxophone.  He was actually pretty good.  I stopped and listened while Elder Morgenegg hurried back to our apartment to retrieve my name tag which was sitting on my shelf instead of on me where it should have been.

As we headed up the road toward the bridge and walkway on our side of the road we also saw a double line of  hare krishna, mostly young women in long skirts with a few men along.  We have seen them before as well.  I didn’t take any pictures as it didn’t seem right but you can perhaps imagine what it looked like.

After we got up the hill we walked up a very nice pathway we had not noticed the last time we were here and it was wide and nicely pave with stones.  We walked up not knowing if it was correct or not but found the concert hall and there were the missionaries across from yet another playground/amusement park with more blow up play houses.  They are certainly popular here.  We enjoyed watching the missionaries and the few members who were there interact with the children and also with their parents.  There was a lot of smiling and laughing.

Can you pick out the missionaries in these pictures?  Hint:  there are six elders and two sisters.

We were not gone long but the missionaries and members were so happy to see us come.  We are glad we took the time to go.  We then made our usual Sunday evening popcorn and got to bed at a good time.

It was a good Sabbath day.